


On The Shores Of The Sea

by Grundy



Category: The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Back to Middle-Earth Month, Gen, Young Arwen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-09
Updated: 2019-03-09
Packaged: 2019-11-14 05:00:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18045956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Grundy/pseuds/Grundy
Summary: It's Arwen's first time in Mithlond, and she has definite ideas about what she wants to do.





	On The Shores Of The Sea

**Author's Note:**

> Not sure whether to call this a prequel or alternate view of the first chapter of [Messages in Bottles](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6541240). Either way, it can be read on its own. Written for B2MEM 2019, prompts 'Raising Arwen' and 'Belegaer'.

Elrond smiled at his daughter’s excitement. It was Arwen’s first trip to Mithlond, and she was eager for her first sight of the Sea.

Arwen was making this journey at a younger age than her brothers, but to be fair, Arwen was far more inclined to listen and less likely to get into inventive trouble than the boys had been at the same age. At twelve, the twins had been interested in everything and everyone, and it had required both their parents keeping an eye on them at all times to keep them from ending up in the river, stuck up a tree, or anything in between.

Arwen was riding happily with her mother, and flanked by her older brothers. The little group was a vision of perfect happiness to Elrond, who rejoiced in his heart that Middle-earth was so peaceful that he and Celebrían were able to not only beget children, but show them the wonders of Ennor without fear.

“When we reach the top of this hill, little sister, you will be able to see the entrance to the Havens,” Elrohir told his sister while Elladan pointed in the exact direction Arwen would need to look.

A conspiratorial look passed between the three, which was equal parts amusing and curious to Elrond. He glanced at Celebrían, but she appeared to know no more than he did what the children might be planning.

Not until they reached Mithlond itself, and had greeted Cirdan – their host for the next few weeks, delighted to see both Elrond and his expanded family.

“Ada,” Arwen said, tugging on his tunic to get him to drop down to her height. “Can you take me to the Sea now please?”

“Sea longing already?” Cirdan laughed. “You’d better watch out, young Elrond. This one will sail before you do!”

“No, I am not sailing anytime soon, and certainly not without my family,” Arwen replied gravely. “Ada?”

The look on her little face told her father that whatever she was about, Arwen was not going to explain herself to anyone but him or possibly Celebrían.

“Very well, my Evenstar,” he replied, offering her his hand.

Rather than go to the docks, he led her toward the edge of the port, to sandy beaches they could walk on and go right into the water if she would.

“Here we are, my bright star – at the edge of Belegaer, looking West.”

Arwen hesitated.

“What is it, darling?” he asked, hovering between curious and concerned.

“If you asked, Ada, would Lord Ossë speak to me?”

Elrond was thrown. He had no idea what his daughter could possibly want to discuss with the friend of the Sea-elves. Ulmo had certainly paid attention to enough of his family line that it wasn’t a ridiculous idea – Eärendil, Tuor, and Turgon had all had dealings with him – but it had never occurred to Elrond to have a conversation with Ossë.

“I do not know,” he replied. “I have never tried to draw his attention before.”

Arwen’s face fell.

“But perhaps if we both ask, Lady Uinen might come to speak to you,” he added, though he wasn’t certain it would work. “She is a friend to mariners, and protector of sea creatures. Perhaps that includes little girls dipping their feet in the water?”

Arwen nodded hopefully.

Father and daughter stepped into the water together, going just far enough for the incoming waves to wash about Arwen’s ankles.

Elrond cast his mind toward the water, interacting with it directly as he had done before. Arwen took a more direct approach.

“Excuse me, Lady Uinen, might I trouble you for a moment of your time please?”

Elrond had to suppress a smile at the politeness of the request - and almost fell over backwards in surprise when it worked.

A watery form rose up, recognizably female, and with hair that looked suspiciously like sea plants. Her face was fair, but undeniably more than elven.

“I am pleased to meet you, girl who speaks to me,” Uinen said, sounding nearly as surprised as Elrond felt. “Very few young ones do on this side of the Sea.”

“Oh? Do children in the West speak to you?” Arwen asked curiously.

“Often,” Uinen replied. “But perhaps the trouble is that there are not so many children here to speak.”

She sounded more puzzled than disappointed or disapproving.

“I am sorry, Lady,” Arwen said, sounding regretful. “My brothers and I do not live by Belegaer, we are only visiting for a short while. I will speak to you while we are here if you like.”

“That would be pleasant,” Uinen said, peering at her more closely. “But you wished to speak to me for a reason, did you not?”

“Yes,” Arwen said quietly, suddenly turning shy.

“The Lady has come to hear what you thought so important, Arwen,” Elrond prompted.

Arwen, after a moment of contemplating the water and the sand near her feet, looked up and gathered her courage.

“Please, Lady, if it would not be too much trouble, could you and Lord Ossë make sure this gets to Valinor?”

Arwen drew from her cloak a rather elegant light blue bottle, stoppered and waxed to keep the water out. It had swans etched on it, which seemed to catch Uinen’s fancy.

“Swans to go to the Swan Havens?” Uinen asked with something that looked like a smile.

Another form rose, equally watery, and laughing as it did.

“Fair enough, little lady!” Ossë exclaimed. “It is about time someone returned something to my friends the Lindar.”

“Oh, it is not being _returned_ ,” Arwen replied earnestly. “It is being _sent_. It is very important – it’s for my great-grandmother Princess Eärwen.”

Elrond had the distinct impression that if ainur needed to do something as mannish as exchange glances, the pair in front of them would have done so.

“Ah, so you are Lindarin yourself,” Ossë nodded. “Very well. Swans for the swan maiden!”

Arwen beamed at him in delight.

“Yes!”

“We shall tell her a little star sent it, shall we?” Uinen asked, sounding a good deal kinder than she had before.

“Oh, if you would, please!” Arwen exclaimed. “Thank you so much!”

A sea breeze ruffled Elrond’s hair along with his daughter’s, and then they were once again the only two on the shore.

“Oh, Ada, wasn’t that _wonderful_ of them?”

Arwen sounded rapturous.

“What exactly was that, my Evenstar?” Elrond asked.

“It’s a letter,” Arwen explained happily. “I wrote to Grandmother’s mother. I got the idea when I was reading the book Cousin Isilien sent me for my begetting day.”

Prince Arantar of Arnor had a daughter a few years older than Arwen, and the two girls have been exchanging letters for several years, since both learned to write. Eldacar has written asking if there might perhaps be an exchange of visits – his grandchildren coming to Imladris for a time, and Elrond bringing his children to Annúminas. He was keen to have his descendants get to speak the High Tongue as more than a language of lore, and to see their elven kin as people they might actually visit rather than figures from history or legend.

“Oh?” Elrond said. “What happened in this book.”

“The book had many stories in it, Ada,” Arwen told him. “But in one of them, a mariner is shipwrecked on an island, and when he finds an empty bottle washed up, he takes a page from a book and writes a letter on it explaining where he thinks he is, and the letter is carried back to his home for his father and older brother to find. They come rescue him.”

“And this gave you the idea you might write a letter and put it in a bottle also?” Elrond asked, somewhat amused.

“Yes,” Arwen replied. “Only I thought it would be better to make sure the bottle was sealed. It didn’t seem like a letter put in an open bottle would be anything but a mess after even a few hours in the sea, and that bottle only had to go from one of the small islands around Numenor to the main island!”

He tried to stifle laughter at his daughter’s indignance at such an obvious inaccuracy. He would explain later that the story was doubtless meant for young atani children, who would not spot the error as easily.

“So I asked Elladan and Elrohir, and they told me I couldn’t possibly send Great-Grandmother a used bottle, even if it was clean.”

“So they made a swan bottle?”

“No, once they told me we might as well make a pretty bottle, I asked for a swan. It seemed right. But they said we couldn’t make it properly swan-shaped, because it might be damaged in rough seas. So they only decorated it with swans. I don’t think they believed me when I said I would ask Lord Ossë to look after it.”

“I suppose we had better go tell them about it,” Elrond said.

He himself was rather curious to see what Celebrían’s reaction would be to hearing that their daughter was writing to her grandmother.

Arwen grinned and practically pulled him from the water.

“Yes, Ada, let’s go! I can’t wait to tell them it worked!”


End file.
